Apparatus For Holding Electronic Device

ABSTRACT

A holding apparatus, including an accommodation unit, at least a clapping unit, and at least a stopping unit, is provided. The accommodation unit includes a surface on which the electronic device can be placed. The clapping unit is located at the sides of the accommodation unit, and is a bendable element. The stopping unit is located at the lower part of the accommodation unit surface to stop the held electronic device from sliding off. When the electronic device is placed on the surface of accommodation unit, the clapping units can be bended to embrace the electronic device snugly to hold the device in place.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to a holding apparatus, and more specifically to an apparatus easily adjustable to hold electronic devices of various thickness or width.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A wide range of portable electronic devices are becoming a part of the modern daily life for most people, such as mobile phones, PDA, MP4, GPS, and so on. As most of the electronic devices are not standard options to the majority of the vehicles, the driver usually needs an additional holder to hold the electronic devices in place so that the use of these electronic devices will not interfere with the driving. Conventional holders available in the market use a structure of two clapping arms on both sides to clap an electronic device. In this structure, one or two moveable clappers are installed in the holding seat. The clappers can move towards or away from each other for holding or releasing the electronic device. The movement mechanism for the clappers is usually gears, spring, linkage rack or rods, and so on. The shortcomings of these types of movement mechanism include the noises when the mechanism moves, and the higher cost to assemble a plurality of elements of the movement mechanism.

Conventional holders have a fixed shape and the fixed shape restricts the shape the electronic devices that can be held by the holders. As the current electronic devices are available in various designs, shapes, thickness, and width, the manufacturers must produce different shapes of holders to hold the various electronic devices. This is inconvenient to the user as well as expensive. It is imperative to design a holding apparatus that is flexible to accommodate various designs and shapes of electronic devices that are used in a vehicle.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The primary object of the present invention is to provide a holding apparatus with a bendable clapping unit for clapping the electronic devices. The clapping unit can be bended to form any shape to fit the shape of held electronic device so that the electronic device can be held snugly in place.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for holding electronic devices of a variety of thickness and width.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a holding apparatus that is small in size, convenient to use and easy to manufacture.

To achieve the above objects, the present invention provides a holding apparatus, including an accommodation unit, at least a clapping unit, and at least a stopping unit. The accommodation unit includes a surface on which the electronic device can be placed. The clapping unit is located at the sides of the accommodation unit, and is a bendable element. The stopping unit is located at the lower part of the accommodation unit surface to stop the held electronic device from sliding off.

The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood from a careful reading of a detailed description provided herein below with appropriate reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention can be understood in more detail by reading the subsequent detailed description in conjunction with the examples and references made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 shows a 3D schematic view of the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows a schematic view of the embodiment in FIG. 1 after the clapping units bended;

FIG. 3 partial cross-section view of the present invention;

FIG. 4 a schematic view of the back of the present invention and matching device;

FIG. 5 shows a schematic view of the present invention holding a mobile phone; and

FIG. 6 shows a schematic view of the second embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 shows a 3D schematic view of the present invention. A holding apparatus 100 of the present invention includes an accommodation unit 1, at least a clapping unit 2, and at least a stopping unit 3. Accommodation unit 1 is a large-area plate with a surface 11 on which an object can be placed. Surface 11 can be treated for anti-sliding, such as coarsened to increase friction, or with anti-sliding tape. A layer of sponge can also be adhered to surface 11 to increase the friction when holding the electronic device. Clapping unit 2 is located at the side of accommodation unit 1. The embodiment of FIG. 1 shows two clapping units 2, which are located at the opposite side of accommodation unit 1. Clapping unit 2 is bendable. As shown in FIG. 2, clapping unit 2 is bendable, but with some rigidity so that a considerable force must be applied to bend clapping unit 2. Once clapping unit 2 is bended into a certain shape, clapping unit 2 will maintain the shape until another force is applied to bend clapping unit 2 to change the shape. Stopping unit 3 is located at the lower part of accommodation unit 1, and protruding on surface 11 to stop the held object from sliding off. The embodiment shows two stopping units. Although the stopping units in this embodiment are fixed in location, the stopping units can also be made adjustable, by bending or moving.

As shown in FIG. 3, clapping unit 2 is bendable with sufficient rigidity to maintain the shape. This feature of the material can be achieved by using a metal layer 21 embedded inside a cover layer 22. Metal layer 21 can be aluminum sheet of certain thickness. Other metals, such as copper, lead, can also be used. Cover layer 22 can be leather, rubber, and so on. Accommodation unit 1 can also include a metal layer 12 embedded in a cover layer 13. Cover layer 13 can be leather, rubber, and so on. Therefore, accommodation unit 1 can also slightly bended. In the present embodiment, for the convenience of manufacturing, metal layer 12 and metal layer 21 can be a connected metal sheet, and cover layer 13 and cover 22 can also be made of the same material. Therefore, the appearance of holding apparatus 100 of the present embodiment is an accommodation unit 1 seamlessly connected with clapping units 2.

As shown in FIG. 4, holding apparatus 100 of the present invention can further include an engaging unit 4, located at and protruding from the back of accommodation unit 1. Engaging unit 4 is for holding apparatus 100 to engage with other devices so that holding apparatus 100 can be fixed inside the vehicle. In the present embodiment, engaging unit 4 is designed to work with a support arm set 5 with a suction cup. Support arm set 5 includes a link rod 51 with a specially designed tip of an engaging block 52. The corresponding location at engaging unit 4 includes an engaging trench 41. When assembled, engaging block 52 is engaged to engaging trench 41 so that engaging unit 4 is fixed to the tip of link rod 51. Therefore, holding apparatus 100 of the present invention can use engaging unit 4 to engage support arm set 5 for use in a vehicle. However, the shape and the size of the engaging unit is not limited to the above embodiment. The engaging unit can be designed to match any structure of the corresponding support devices.

FIG. 5 shows a schematic view of the present invention holding a mobile phone. When first used, a mobile phone 6 is placed on surface 11 of accommodation unit 1. Then, clapping units 2 on both sides of accommodation unit 1 are bended to embrace mobile phone 6. Stopping units 3 are located below mobile phone 6 to prevent mobile phone 6 from sliding off surface 11 of accommodation unit 1. The bended shape of clapping units 2 forms the holding space with accommodation unit 1 to hold mobile phone 6. because clapping units 2 are bendable, the shape of the holding space can be adjusted according to the thickness and the width of the mobile phone so that the mobile phone can be embraced in the holding apparatus snugly.

FIG. 6 shows another embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 6, the shape of clapping units 2 is different from the earlier embodiment. Clapping unit 2 are still located on both sides of accommodation unit 1 in this embodiment, but a hole 23 is included on each clapping unit 2. The use of apparatus of the present invention to hold electronic device is the same as in the earlier embodiment, that is, by bending clapping units to embrace the electronic device snugly. It is clear that the shape of clapping units 2 of the present invention is restricted to any specific type.

In summary, the holding apparatus of the present invention uses bendable clapping units to hold the electronic device. Because the clapping units can be bended to any shape, the holding apparatus of the present invention can be used to hold electronic devices of various shapes. In addition, because the structure of the present invention is simple, the manufacturing cost can be reduced for market competitiveness.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the details described thereof. Various substitutions and modifications have been suggested in the foregoing description, and others will occur to those of ordinary skill in the art. Therefore, all such substitutions and modifications are intended to be embraced within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. 

1. A holding apparatus, comprising: an accommodation unit having a surface for placing an object onto said surface; at least one clapping unit located on a side of said accommodation unit and made of a bendable material; and at least a stopping unit located at a lower part of said accommodation unit and protruding from said surface; wherein said at least one clapping unit has a first position in which said at least one clapping unit is substantially flat with said accommodation unit, and a second position in which said at least one clapping unit is bended to form a holding space for embracing said object between said at least one clapping unit and said accommodation unit, said holding space being adjustable by adjusting said second position for accommodating objects of different sizes.
 2. The holding apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said at least one clapping unit comprises an embedded metal layer so that said at least one clapping unit is bendable.
 3. The holding apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein said embedded metal layer is covered with a cover layer made of leather or rubber.
 4. The holding apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein said metal layer is made of aluminum, copper or lead.
 5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said accommodation unit comprises an embedded metal layer, and said metal layer extends into said at least one clapping unit on the side of said accommodation unit.
 6. The holding apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein said metal layer is covered with a cover layer made of leather or rubber
 7. The holding apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the location of said stopping unit is adjustable.
 8. The holding apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an engaging unit located on a surface of said accommodation unit opposite to the surface where said object is placed onto for engaging with other devices. 